Young Couple Threatened by Death (The Promenade) (c. 1498): Artwork and History

Young Couple Threatened by Death (The Promenade) (c. 1498) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Albrecht Dürer German, 1471-1528.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The foreboding, corpselike figure of Death with an hourglass appears in many Northern Renaissance prints; in this engraving, he peeks out from behind a tree, holding his hourglass aloft. Each image is a reminder that death strikes the young, the Christian, and the chivalric alike; no one outlasts or avoids death. There is an evident connection between death and sensuality in this image, underlined by the suggestively positioned and sized sword.

Object facts

• Title: Young Couple Threatened by Death (The Promenade)
• Date: c. 1498
• Artist attribution: Albrecht Dürer German, 1471-1528
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Image/sheet: 19.6 × 12 cm (7 3/4 × 4 3/4 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.933

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.